Skin forms ʻsuspension bridgesʼ for wound healing
A new study on skin tissue mechanics published in the journal Nature Materials demonstrates how layers of human keratinocytes (outer skin cells) form structures similar to suspension bridges over wounds to help the healing process.
Scientists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), together with their colleagues from the Mechanobiology Institute of the National University of Singapore, used microfabricated technology, which generates miniature structures at micrometre scales, to look at how skin cells migrate to fix gaps or wounds.
By means of this technique, they showed that these regions, which have no extracellular matrix support and thus are not conducive for cell adhesion, are spanned by suspended multicellular ʻbridgesʼ formed by layers of keratinocytes. Migrating skin cells are then able to continue to march forward as a united and homogenous group to form a protective barrier over the wound.
A new study on skin tissue mechanics published in the journal Nature Materials demonstrates how layers of human keratinocytes (outer skin cells) form structures similar to suspension bridges over wounds to help the healing process.
Scientists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), together with their colleagues from the Mechanobiology Institute of the National University of Singapore, used microfabricated technology, which generates miniature structures at micrometre scales, to look at how skin cells migrate to fix gaps or wounds.
By means of this technique, they showed that these regions, which have no extracellular matrix support and thus are not conducive for cell adhesion, are spanned by suspended multicellular ʻbridgesʼ formed by layers of keratinocytes. Migrating skin cells are then able to continue to march forward as a united and homogenous group to form a protective barrier over the wound.